O-8-4
by SMakarov
Summary: When Agent Eleanor Clarke, a biochemist in SHIELD's research division, is tasked with an object of unknown origin, she reckons the worst that could happen will be lack of sleep and extreme exhaustion. Then turns up Loki, the only person who can help her with the enigma that's been thrown at her. Elle really should've thought twice about calling in Loki as a 'temporary consultant'.


**A/N: I should be studying. But I've been trying to get this plot-bunny off me for weeks. I don't know why, but I've been in the LokixOC mood for a while now. Maybe it's because I suddenly realised I'm a hardcore Hiddlestoner? Haha :D Shit I have a lot of stories to continue :( Will fully resume my writing and all after 14th Oct, because that's when my finals are ending :P **

**I know you don't get to know much details about my OC in this chapter, but don't worry, you'll get more in the next chapter :) Please review!**

* * *

I glared at the metallic cube sitting before me. It seemed to be mocking me, throwing off weird purplish hues around it, and with every second that passed, I felt increasingly annoyed at myself.

_Come on, think! There has got to be a way to crack this!_

In my deep thought, I hadn't heard the door to my lab open.

"How's it going?" Phil Coulson stood, a smile on his face, telling me that he really found this quite amusing. "Coulson, go away." I groaned.

He laughed. "No really, how is it? It fell out of the sky about a week ago, nothing yet?" He walked around my pristine white lab and sat on a table. "Get off - Bruce Banner used that table before, don't touch it."

"Seriously? You haven't stopped crushing on Banner?"

"Have you stopped crushing on Captain America?" I retorted smoothly.

"I never -" I stared at him. "Let's move on. The cube. Any updates?" I chuckled softly and walked over to a computer screen hanging from the ceiling, and pulled up some readings.

"I've finished the second series of tests. And -"

"It's very similar to everything we were getting off from Mjolnir." Coulson supplied, scrutinizing the data. "Yeah, I figured that. I'll need to have a word with the head scientist who was working on it, but he's in Malibu looking into some Extremis threat or something." I said absent mindedly sweeping small specks of dust of the 'Bruce Banner Table.' The lab I was working in was the very same lab that Bruce Banner and Tony Stark had inhabited during the Loki/Battle for Manhattan fiasco.

_If only I could've been here when he'd been here. _I pondered wistfully.

"So you're telling me this could possibly be of Asgardian origin?" Coulson snapped me out of my reverie.

"Pretty much." I replied, knotting my fingers together. He frowned, crossing his arms. "What?" I asked, suddenly snapping into attention.

"There is someone on board you could ask."

"Who?"

Coulson looked at me. "Thor."

My eyes widened. "Thor? Like the Avenger, Thor?"

"Yes."

"Wh - he's here? Why's he on the Helicarrier?"

"Something involving Loki."

At that, my jaw dropped. "_Loki's_ here?"

Coulson sighed and nodded, his face briefly shifting to a weird cocktail of emotions, and then becoming stoic once again. I remembered his last meeting with the God of Mischief, or at least what he'd told me of it.

"Are you okay?" I asked, stepping towards him.

"Yeah yeah, don't worry about me. He isn't going to stab me, or anyone any time soon. He's here in peace." I nodded, but my eyes still searched his face for any sign of discomfort or worry.

"No really Elle, I'm fine."

"Okay." I smiled softly, and Coulson returned the gesture. He was one of my closest friends; almost like a brother to me. He was the one who recruited me into SHIELD after I got my doctorate. Coulson constantly dragged me out of hard situations, only to put me in harder ones, but he was always there for me. And for everyone. I sometimes wondered what it must be like, to be the glue of the entire organization. He knew every single person by their first name, a feat even Nick Fury hadn't been able to accomplish. When he 'died', all of SHIELD mourned. But then it turned out, all of that wasn't real. He had died, only for a while, but they had managed to save him, and then shipped him off to Tahiti on medical leave. Of course, as per Nick Fury's manipulative self, the ruse was kept up, in order to spur the Avengers into action. Only Level 7 clearance agents had been informed. And then, one day, Tony Stark had been hacking into SHIELD systems just for the fun of it or something, and he'd found out. The Avengers were furious. No one had been there except for the Big Three (Fury, Coulson and Hill), but from what I heard from Phil, it was bad ("Except for the part where Captain America hugged me. That was awesome.")

I ran a hand through my light golden blonde hair, and quickly tied it up into a ponytail. "So I gotta go ask Thor?"

Coulson smiled. "Yup. He's on the Third Floor, room 312. Oh, don't stare at his hair. He loves it. Don't make jokes, he doesn't understand them, and for the love of god, don't mention pop-tarts." I laughed, as I threw on a coat.

* * *

My knuckles rapped against the silver door, and upon hearing a low "Come in!", I opened the door to the Thunder God's room.

"Uh..." I paused awkwardly not knowing how to proceed. Do I call him Mr Thor or Sir or your highness (he's a Prince right? Or is he King now?). He was more or less exactly what I'd expected to see, so no big surprise. But still, the whole idea that I was talking to a _freaking Avenger_ made adrenaline rush through my veins.

"Yes?" Thor took a step towards me, which was about as long as three steps of mine.

I decided to play it simple. "Hello Thor. I'm a research scientist with SHIELD and um...I've been trying to figure out exactly what this is-" at that I held up a solid metal cube that had become my mission since a week before. "It's been giving off readings - heat signatures, electromagnetic graphs, radiation readings, very similar to the ones we got from Mjolnir, so I was wondering if it's of Asgardian origin. I mean, it did just suddenly fall out of the sky so..." I chuckled awkwardly.

Thor laughed softly, but it was still quite loud. "If I may?" he asked, extending his hand.

We met halfway into the room and I placed the engima into the god's hands. Hill hadn't been kidding about his build - his arms were practically as wide as my waist, and my head was in line with his chest. He rotated the object in his hands, squinting at the patterns. After a few seconds, he returned it to me.

"Apologies, my lady, but I've never seen such an article on Asgard." Thor told me, an apologetic smile on his face. Sighing internally, I smiled back at him. "It's alright. Thank you, though."

I was stepping back towards the door when I heard a voice.

"Wait."

I turned around, but I already knew it wasn't Thor. The voice sounded somehow colder and more commanding. Someone stepped out from the shadows in the corner.

My eyes narrowed as I took in the figure. A tall lean man, with green eyes and hair the colour of shadows, walked towards me. "Let me have a look that." said - or ordered - The God of Mischief, the God of Lies, the Trickster, and the man who once decided to decimate Manhattan in an effort to rule humanity.

Loki.

My eyes flickered to Thor briefly, unsure of whether to comply or not. I realised that he had stiffened, and his grip on Mjolnir had tightened. From the corner of my vision, I saw Loki roll his eyes. Thor nodded warily.

_Don't show any fear. Just do it._

I made my way to Loki and passed the cube to him. He turned it over in his palms, like Thor did, but something about the way he treated it was different. His long fingers gently brushed against the silver metal as he touched it, connecting his finger tips to the designs and patterns. A few minutes passed and he returned it to me, gave me a brief glance, and then turned tail and began walking away.

"Woah woah - hold on!' I called after him. He paused in his strides and turned. "So do you know what this is? Because you looked like you did."

Loki grinned at me. "Yes, I do know what that is." And then he didn't say anymore.

I jerked my head towards him. "Continue?"

"Why should I? It is no concern of mine as to whether or not your research succeeds."

"SHIELD would really appreciate it." I offered, biting my lip. Loki was not fun to argue with.

Loki snarled, his eyes narrowing. "I have less care for SHIELD than I do for you, you f—"

"Loki!" Thor interrupted what I guessed would've been a train of obscenities. "Perhaps if you would help Miss…"

"Clarke." I supplied as Thor turned to me.

"Miss Clarke, SHIELD would have another reason to look at you in peace, brother."

Loki just scowled.

"He's right." I added, clutching the piece to my chest. "I mean, I think he's right – I don't know for sure but I could definitely ask Director Fury to let you go on goodwill or something if you helped me. I mean, provided you don't kill me, of course." I rattled off, silently hoping looks couldn't kill because Loki was glaring at me with the intensity of a thousand burning suns.

And then suddenly, in a few seconds, after he'd processed what I said maybe, his face cleared up. He frowned, but not in the 'I-want-to-kill-you' way, but in more of the 'I-am-in-deep-thought' way.

_Perhaps I should've just let him be._

* * *

"Absolutely not."

And with that, Director Fury marched away. I briskly kept up alongside him as we both dodged agents running each every way.

"Please please please I could achieve a breakthrough!" I folded my palms in a begging motion.

"Hell. No. Now get out of my face before I demote your ass to an underground medical facility." He replied without even looking at me. I stepped up to stand in front of him.

"That's it. I'm sending you to Cherokee." The dark toned man glared at me with one eye.

"Sir no really please, listen. Loki knows what that…thing is, okay? It might be a good thing, you know, like an Asgardian disco cube or something instead of a weapon, but it fell out of the sky, and..." I sighed. "Since when do we ever get that lucky? It's something bad, and the sooner we know what it is, the sooner we can contain it, or destroy it, and make sure no one bad is gonna get a hold of it. I don't know what to even do about it, and I'm one of the best Biochem scientists you've got down here. People in practically every division of SHIELD, people better than me, are passing it around like we're playing some kiddish party game. _No one _has any goddamn idea how to even begin with this thing. But he does. I'm willing to be in a lab alone with him if it means we get to crack this thing."

Fury took a deep breath.

"Coulson shoulda just left you in college, where he found you." Fury grumbled.

"I reminded him of him. He couldn't do it." I grinned, knowing I'd succeeded.

"I'll get the SHIELD techs to put something together for you. But you better expect tight security." Fury raised a finger in my direction.

"Yes sir!" I saluted.

As he walked away, with his dark coat swishing, he said one last thing.

"Wrong hand."

* * *

**A/N: If you're still here, thanks! I know it's pretty vague (especially about my OC and the cube), but I felt that the first chapter had to set the scene for what's to come first, and then I could delve into the mysteries of this story. Do not fret, everything will be explained in the next chapter!**

**I hope that was a good enough hook to keep you guys interested in what's to come! It's gonna be fun, I swear! Haha :) Anyway, just a little something someone told me to clarify, in case it wasn't clear enough: The cube is _not_ the Tesseract or the Cosmic Cube. It is going to be something else from the Marvel Universe, though we've only briefly seen it in the MCU. **

**PLEASE REVIEW! THEY FEED MY SOUL! **

**And also help #freeloki? Haha, I can't wait for Thor 2!**


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